Albert Polhemus House, 1848

411-413 East Washington Street

Albert Polhemus House, 1848

This well-built Greek Revival house has a characteristic classic entry with sidelights. The elegantly restrained porches are later additions. The house was built in 1848 for Albert and Leah Polhemus and their family of six, who had come to Ann Arbor from the state of New York.

The Reverend Maltby Gelston, Jr. family moved into the house in 1861. Mr. Gelston and his brother, Mills B. Gelston, were "supply" ministers for small churches in lower Michigan. Maltby's son, Joseph Mills Gelston, was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor from 1888 to 1909. After Maltby Gelston's death in 1893, his daughter Sarah converted the house into apartments, which at the time were reserved for single or widowed ladies. It has now been converted into offices.